THUNDER BAY – Dress-down days at Pope John Paul II School paid off for the George Jeffrey Children’s Foundation.
Staff at the south-side senior elementary school donated $1,780 to the centre, which provides rehabilitative care to hundreds of youngsters living with disabilities in Thunder Bay and the surrounding area.
Lucy Goldberg, a special education teacher at the school, said participants gave $1 a week, which allowed them to wear jeans and denim on Fridays. It’s a charity drive that occurs annually, with a different organization benefiting each year.
“This year we decided this year as a spec-ed team to donate it to the students who need it most and that’s the students that attend the George Jeffrey Children’s (Centre),” Goldberg said.
“Many of our students here are clients of George Jeffrey’s. We work in collaboration with the teams there and our students here at school.”
Goldberg, the mother of a special-needs child, said the centre has a special place in her heart, as well as those of her colleagues.
“These students come here with a variety of exceptionalities, and George Jeffrey helps us support them by helping them mainstream into classes by working on their fine motor (abilities), their gross motors skills and their speech at times,” she said.
“Our goal is to get them to be productive members of our community and strengthen their abilities to be a better individual.”
Steve MacDonald, executive director at the foundation, said a donation like this helps them bridge that gap between what government funding provides to cover costs and the actual costs of delivering services.
“It all adds up,” he said. “And this is a generous donation. Just think about the participation from all of the staff here who paid into this dress-down campaign. It’s really generous and it shows they really care about giving back to the community.”
